THE GOLF IS OPTIONAL, THE MIRTH IS REQUIRED! The only blog detailing PSU Track and Field, (not always great!) Golf, Physics topics and great videos at the same time! An eclectic mish-mash (mess) of just about everything imaginable. Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golfers have honored PSU Track/XC, Coach Harry Groves and abused golf courses throughout Happy Valley since 2002. Help spread the word!

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"Friendship, physics, and philosophy---this blog has it all."

-Anonymous, 2011.

"I enjoy what you are doing with this blog. It is truly the only reason to have a Facebook account."-Darryl Jones.

"Light yourself on fire and then roll in broken glass to put out the fire!"-from Isaiah Harris's Twitter Feed, explaining how to replicate the feeling after an 800M race."Even pit bulls call him Coach."-Brian Mount, reacting to a visit to Coach Groves from Hunter Backenstose's pit bull, Blanche.

"Keep up the great work."-Nick Scarpello, after winning the 2016 Carlsbad 5K.

"Goodbye to all that. (Politics) I am turning into Jeremiah Johnson, a shunner."-Rob Whiteside, walking the Appalachian Trail.

"I'd rather see you laying in a gutter with your head split open than to see you run like that." -Coach Groves, following a poor showing of 800M runners at a Beaver Stadium Meet, late 70's.

"You do a fantastic job."-Phil Caraher.

"You are amazing at blogging."-Walt Chadwick.

"Best blog out there."-Phil Passen.

"...it tops all sites I've seen with its sense of humor."-George Brose, author of the website Once Upon a Time in the Vest, about our humble blog.

"Great post as usual DFB!"-Darryl Jones.

"You just don't f*** with a f*****."-sage advice from Coach Groves, as told to Tim Backenstose and me, 5/17/14.

"When I was a kid, I saw an illegal dice game in the bathroom at Franklin Field."-Matthew Groves, 2013, remembering the Penn Relays Carnival.

"Don't sit next to Balkey and Artie at a track meet...You'll end up talking about hockey for 3 hours."-Coach Groves to Rebecca Donaghue, 2013.

"The first 45 mile week I ever ran, I ran in the first 3 days at PSU- Thank you very much, Bruce Baden!"-Larry Mangan, 2012.

"If it takes longer than a paragraph, you don't have anything to say anyway."-Coach Grovesat the 2012 Track Alumni Dinner"If you can't get excited for The Penn Relays than damn it, you aint got no soul!"-Coach Groves, as reported by Matt Lincoln at the 2012 Penn Relays.

"Athletics is for education and recreation, nothing else. Winning is important only in that you learn more."-Coach Harry Groves, 5/21/2011 at the Alumni "Run"."... for a brief time, I'm the greatest Track Coach in the world."-Coach Harry Groves, at his Retirement 2006.

"You must do something about the cheating!"-Coach Harry Groves, after golfing two holes with each foursome in 2009.

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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

At some point soon, we will have peaked with over 20,000 page views in the past month. And now well over 700,000 lifetime page views in our 10 year history. Thank you for continuing to spread the word.

And now that we have fully funded a full tuition scholarship in the name of Coach Groves, we can celebrate at this year's Reunion and Golf Tourney.

Big News: Clark Haley is finalizing details to have the first ever DOWNTOWN REUNION at the Days Inn. You must set aside the weekend of May 18 and 19 this year to attend the festivities. And spread that word too!

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The weekend was full of action, with many alums taking care to remember their roots in Happy Valley. A few Alumni Singlets were sighted and a few Wristbands were noted on some Track Alumni (Golfers). (Another sale of Alumni Singlets will commence shortly! And possibly a new Wristband will be forthcoming at the next Reunion.)

Isaiah Harris with his newly replaced "PSU is 800U" wristband.

Diamond League Champion Darrell Hill competing in his Alumni Singlet at the Penn State National.

Monday, January 29, 2018

From our good friend and high school coach of several Nittany Lions, Bill Preston, comes news of the passing of William "Bill" Jimeson.

William "Bill" Jimeson, 97, of Ponte Vedra, passed away peacefully at the Bailey Family
Center for Caring. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bill
was an accomplished athlete in track and field, setting the Wilkinsburg
High School track record 880. He also finished 6th in the Western
Pennsylvania Cross-Country Championships and placed 4th in the outdoor
880 mile run. A graduate of Penn State University,
Bill was captain of the freshman cross-country team. In a special mile
relay event at the 1944 Penn Relays, he made up 25 yards as anchor, in a
race voted the most outstanding of the meet. During his post-graduate
studies at Johns Hopkins University, Bill won the 440, high hurdles, low
hurdles and anchored the mile relay for high point man in the Mason
Dixon Championship. One week in April he had the fastest time in the
East for low hurdles. Bill placed 5th in the Olympic trials during the
National AAU Championship in 1948. He went on to become a coach in track
and field for the U.S. National Team, traveling to Russia and Poland.
He also founded and coached the Baltimore Olympic Club from 1946-1967,
which was the only club to ever have a fall dual meet cross-country
season and an outdoor dual meet track season. In fact, the BOC won every
South Atlantic Association AAU outdoor track championship from 1946 to
Bill's retirement from coaching. They also won the mile relay crown and had the fastest mile relay ever at old Madison
Square Garden. For 31 years, Bill worked as a sales representative for
Allyn and Bacon Publishing Company in Baltimore. In 1979, he moved from
Baltimore to South Ponte Vedra, where for 14 years, he served as the
Fire Chief at Station 9, the South Ponte Vedra Volunteer Fire Dept. In
his spare time, Bill enjoyed big band music and reading the Baltimore
newspaper. He was a very devoted husband, father, grandfather and
great-grandfather, and he will be deeply missed.He
is survived by his wife of almost 72 years, Margaret Jimeson of Ponte
Vedra; a daughter, Barbara Dian Jimeson of St. Augustine; grandson,
Brian Hayden and his wife Jodi Hayden and great-grandchildren, Amanda
and Brian, Jr. He was preceded in death by his parents, Wilbur and Betty
Jimeson; sister, Carolyn Martin and his son, William C. Jimeson, Jr.A celebration of his life will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, 2018, at the Allegro in St. Augustine.St. Johns Family Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Sunday, January 28, 2018

I had a wonderful day in Happy Valley yesterday. I'm back at the three computers making up Blog Central again. Too bad that two of them are on the fritz and the third one seems sluggish.

The day started out with a visit with final semesterDaughter the Elder. The shopping trip on her behalf didn't cost me too much, so I got off easy. And her dog was rewarded with a dog bed from Five Below which she apparently really likes.

I held off on a Kung Pao lunch as we traveled to Coach Groves' favorite haunt, Panera in downtown State College for grilled cheese and tomato soup. Driving past the blocks-long line to get into The Rathskeller reminded me of a few of my classmates (I'm thinking of you Mark Haywood!).

Then it was off to the Penn State National Meet for the afternoon Invitational events. Got to see many Alumni (Golfers) and saw several winners of our Annual Performance of the Year polls. There were a couple of highlights during the meet, which I will bring in future posts.

Then it was off to Little Szechuan (solid 8/10 on the Kung Pao scale I made up.) with Daughter the Elder for a real Kung Pao Dinner! (You knew it was coming, didn't you?)

I then stopped in at the Coaches' Reception at Pickle's before heading home in the rain. All in all, a good day. It was great seeing so many of the best people on earth.

Big News:

In the days leading up to the Penn State National, some really great Track Alumni (Golfers) stepped up and put us over-the-top in our quest to fully fund a tuition scholarship in Coach Groves' name for the program. That's right, we topped our goal of $300,000! A few of our friends visited Coach Groves to present him with the certificate from the Penn State Varsity Club detailing the news.

We will have more on this to come, along with some additional stories, pics and videos from the exciting weekend.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Finally, a day off! And I'm using it to travel to State College for the afternoon invitational section of the Penn State National. I hope to bring you a story or two of the kind of things that won't be in the official news releases. Maybe a pic or two and even a video?

Saturday, January 20, 2018

I will be there for the Invitational Section of the Penn State National next week. Hope you will come too and say hello! It has been a great meet to attend for the last decade. There is always a top performance or two and almost always a sub-4 mile.

Last year's edition brought us a Penn State Track and Field Alumni (Golfer)setting a World Record in the 600M with another Penn Stater just behind setting the Collegiate and School Record. (1:14.91 and 1:14.96)

Isaiah Harris (1:14.96) Casimir Loxsom (1:14.91)

With yesterday's run by UTEP'sMichael Saruni in Albequerque, that WR is gone (1:14.79). Will anyone step up again to take it back at the Ashenfelter Track next week?

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

There will be an Alumni Social following the Penn State National Indoor Meet on Saturday, January 27 at 7:30 to 9:30 at Pickles. All us cool people will be there, so why not you too? Be sure to reply to Owen Dawson! There's even an open bar!

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

To put things in perspective concerning 2017 in the Penn State Track and Field Alumni Universe, one must take into account that Isaiah Harris' appearance at the World Championships 800M didn't even make the Finals.. And incredibly, here is one performance that came in tied for fourth place...

World Championships for 2 Middle Distance Stars. Brannon Kidder and Casimir Loxsom helped the US win the 4 x 800M Relay at the IAAF Relay World Championships.

Also in fourth place...

Danae Rivers set at least 6 School Records in her Freshman Indoor Season. She ended up with her name on the books in the 600M, 800M, Mile and DMR.

Meanwhile LAST place was...

Joe Kovacs with a Silver Medal in the World Championship Shot Put! (Joe has won the previous 2 Performances of the Year with his exploits.)

Third place was just...

The Mens Team winning their first ever Big Ten Outdoor Track title.

And Second Place in the voting just happened to be a combination of a World Record and a Collegiate Record in the same race!

Casimir Loxsom World Record in the Indoor 600M with Isaiah Harris just a few hundredths of a second behind for a School Record and Collegiate Record at the Penn State National.

But the Overall Winner of the 2017 Performance of the Year was the incredible last throw, 20 inch PR of Darrell Hill to win the IAAF Diamond League Shot Put title. Congrats to Darrell for making it the third year in a row that a Shot Putter has won the award. PSU is Shot Put U

Bryce Williams stunned everyone except himself with an opening meet School Record in the Triple Jump. (53’-3.50”)

David Lucas heaved the heavy ball further than any Nittany Lion ever. (70’-7.25”)

But in my eyes, the performance of the meet was our very own Undersecretary of FunBilly Cvecko butting heads in the 800M with the younger crowd. He finished third in 1:56.06. And I'm betting he never gets enough sleep!

With his track and field bona fides sorta kinda cemented, we can now turn to his links to our group...

Turns out that former Lion great Ricky Garcia bought a house 4 years ago in Alexandria, VA which was built and used by George Washington himself. The house remained in the Washington family for generations after.

When Ricky decided the house needed a basement he sought help in surveying and excavating the space beneath his living room. When they discovered a well and cistern, archeologists became interested. There is now an official archeological dig going on at the home! I'm hoping they find a Penn Relays Watch or something similar (hee hee hee).

And don't forget that there is only 2 days left to vote in the 2017 Performance of the Year Poll on the left sidebar of the full website. Please vote for your top 2 of the 6 finalists!

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

I was happy to see that our Chief Laundry and Morale Officer posted a couple of nice remembrances on the Facebook page about the passing of Penn State's Dean of Running, Horace Ashenfelter III, as I was away from Blog control.

It really is too late for me to add much to the many heartfelt regards streaming in from all over the world. All I will add is that I was honored to be able to speak with him several years ago at our Reunion. I was tickled to hear him tell me that a 3 to 5 mile run should be considered a long run! He was also delighted to learn that we named the prize for the longest putt on hole 18 after him at the Coach Groves Golf Tournament.

Mr. Ashenfelter with our Golden Putter.

And don't forget to vote for the 2017 Performance of the Year on the left sidebar of the full website!

And there is still a little time to vote in the 2nd and last semi-final for the 2017 Performance of the Year. Go to the full website and vote for your own top 3 on the left sidebar to put them into the Finals!

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

I'm not really sure what number of annual trips in a row this is, but it has been long enough to not be able to keep track.

But it another one of those cold years they have down here in wonderful Florida every once in a while. With snow to the north and freezing temperatures in the am for the next several days, it's not quite the same. But I have always said I can vacation anywhere away from work....

Now don't forget to vote in the 2nd Semi-Final of the 2017 Performance of the Year. We don't want to disappoint the Interns any more than the first semi-final already has...